


The Leaves of Memory Parch and Fade

by OpheliaRising



Category: Dark Is Rising Sequence - Susan Cooper
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-18
Updated: 2008-12-18
Packaged: 2018-01-25 02:34:31
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1626944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OpheliaRising/pseuds/OpheliaRising
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Will remembers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Leaves of Memory Parch and Fade

**Author's Note:**

> Many thanks to my betas, Voksen, Aris, and Mike, all of whom were immensely helpful in the writing of this. Any remaining mistakes are mine alone, and probably the result of tinkering after they got done with it.
> 
> Written for leiascully

 

 

A knock on the door, and Bran Davies looked up from the pile of vegetables he was slicing. "Coming."

"Well, you certainly took your time," Will said. Bran held the door wide and in stepped a dripping Will Stanton, hair streaming dark streaks around his face, raincoat held protectively over a brown package. Bran took the package as Will peeled out of his raincoat and wellingtons. 

"You let me stand in the rain," he accused, and Bran grinned, flash of tawny eyes and red mouth against his pale skin.

"You made me hold up my dinner for you." 

Will shook his head wildly, scattering raindrops across the rug. "Sorry. I was about to leave, but the department chair wanted to talk about letting me have my own graduate section in Welsh archeology next semester, and I couldn't exactly turn him away. I wanted to get here sooner." It had been a week since they'd seen each other. Will had been away at a dig site for his next book.

Bran padded barefoot back to the kitchen, waving one hand to show that he was still listening. The damp package proved to contain a bottle of red wine, and Will leaned against the open doorframe to the kitchen and watched as Bran rummaged through a drawer for a corkscrew. "How was your week?" Will asked, raising his voice over the popping noise the cork made when Bran tugged it from the bottle.

"Not bad." Bran poured the wine into a decanter and sat it on the table to await the rest of the meal. "I managed another twenty thousand words. My editor hasn't slit my throat yet, which is more than I expected since I'm late again." He glanced over his shoulder and eyed Will critically. "The towels in the bathroom haven't migrated since you've been gone. You could dry off more."

Will shook his head, and waited until Bran had stepped back in front of the cutting board and resumed his vivisection of a tomato before crossing the kitchen and pressing himself against Bran's back, pushing his nose into the fine white hairs at the nape of Bran's neck. Bran was only a shadow taller than Will, which made it easy to nuzzle the tip of his nose into the sensitive space just beneath Bran's ear.

Bran stilled and shifted to turn around, but Will wrapped his hands over Bran's to keep them on the knife and tomato. "Don't mind me," he said, letting the motion of his lips brush feather-light kisses against the crest of Bran's spine. "I wouldn't want to hold up dinner any longer."

"Kind of you," Bran resumed his chopping and leaned his head to the side to give Will more room, exposing the pale line of his neck.

"I'm generous like that," Will whispered across the shell of Bran's ear, listening to the catch in Bran's breath. "Just be careful with that knife. I like your fingers the way they are." 

"I'm always careful." Bran's voice dropped a full octave from his normal range, and he shifted into Will's next barely-there kiss, looking for more contact. Will moved with him, keeping the pressure of his mouth light as breath across Bran's skin. He nuzzled the tip of his nose against Bran's scalp. Bran smelled good there, earthy and deep. 

"Yeah." Will's hands crept around and began to methodically work open the buttons on the black shirt Bran wore. The _thup-thup-thup_ rhythm of knifework slowed and faltered. By the time Will had the shirt open and could spread his hands across the bony expanse of Bran's ribs, the chopping had stopped completely. 

"Missed you," Will murmured. 

"Mm." 

"Dreamed about you sometimes." Will traced just the tip of a fingernail across Bran's nipple, feeling it peak beneath the teasing. His other hand splayed across Bran's stomach, beneath his belly button, holding Bran's hips back snug against his own. "About when we were younger."

Bran laid the knife down and braced himself against the counter, leaning into it while Will lipped at the nape of his neck, soft dry kisses into the delicate skin there. "Before we figured this out?" Bran's voice went ragged, and Will liked it that way.

"We knew other things then." Will slid the hand on Bran's lower stomach down to press flat against the fly of his trousers, just pressure, but enough to wring a heated sound from deep in Bran's throat. When he thrust up against Will's hand, the pressure diminished, leaving him hungry still.

"Tease."

"Yeah."

Bran pressed his hips back hard, and Will stepped back enough to let him turn around. Will's lips were red from rubbing against Bran's skin, and wet hair curled across the faint lines of his forehead. Bran leaned back against the counter again and used Will's belt loops to haul him forward. The pressure against his groin felt good, but the chaste brush of Will's mouth against his felt even better. Bran didn't push for more, returning the gentle kisses by nuzzling into Will's mouth and sketching his fingertips across Will's collarbone through his damp jumper. Will kissed like he had all the time in the world to do just this: lick into Bran's mouth and reacquaint himself with the feel of Bran's body pressed against the length of his own.

"Dreamed about this too," he said, and brushed a strand of hair out of Bran's eyes.

Bran cupped his fingers against the curve of Will's ass, tugging him closer still and rubbing his hips against the place where Will pressed firm and thick against him. "What else did you dream about?"

Will chuckled into his next kiss. "Do you have lube here in the kitchen?" he asked when he next drew back. It wasn't precisely an answer, but it was close enough.

Bran shook his head. "Bedroom."

"Come on then."

Will twined their fingers together as they made their way to the back of the house, and insisted on stripping Bran himself when they'd closed the door and turned on the dim lamp next to the bed. His hands lingered over the planes of Bran's shoulders as he brushed the shirt down to Bran's wrists. 

"Hey. You okay?" Bran asked. Will was always careful of him, but Bran rarely saw him so slow, so nearly reverent.

"I'm fine." Bran could taste Will's smile in his next kiss, and was reassured when Will stripped his trousers and pants down in one motion so he could scoot back on the bed. Bran dug lube out of the nightstand as Will stripped down, then settled back with his legs in a V and slid one slick finger inside himself. Will froze, the zipper half-way down on his trousers, and Bran smiled at the mesmerized way he watched as Bran pulled his fingers back, reslicked them, then pressed two in. It was a little fast; Bran usually got more time to get used to one finger when Will prepped him, but it was worth it for the way Will couldn't tear his eyes away. 

"Come on," Bran said, and Will remembered himself enough to wiggle the rest of the way out of his pants. He crawled up on the bed beside Bran, and offered a pillow to slide beneath Bran's hips. 

"Can you take three?" he asked, and Bran bit his lip then nodded. He went to withdraw his fingers again, but Will's hand shot out and grabbed his wrist, stopping him and slowly pushing the two fingers deeper. Bran groaned at the feeling.

"Just let me," Will said and slicked his own fingers, then pressed one in carefully on top of the two Bran already had inside himself. Bran closed his eyes and let his head fall back into the pillow as Will twined their hands together and fingered him open slowly with a combination of Will's fingers and his own. Their kisses fell into the rhythm their fingers set, lazy and sweet.

Finally Bran squirmed and pushed his other hand into Will's hair. "I've _been_ ready," he said, "Come on." Will nipped at his bottom lip and didn't seem inclined to stop what they were doing. "Please. Will, please."

"Yeah, okay," Will breathed into his mouth, and settled between Bran's thighs to press inside him with his cock instead of fingers. 

Even then, Will didn't let him hurry. He slipped in shallowly, then withdrew completely before the next slow, shallow penetration. Bran wondered if Will was determined to drive him insane. 

"Hurry up, just --," Bran gripped at the small of Will's back and tried to tug him closer, deeper. Will smiled fondly and grabbed Bran's wrists, pressing his hands into the pillow above his head. The movement did shift Will inside Bran, gave him a little more of the depth he craved. Once Will was stretched out over him again, though, he kept to the same slow, easy pace as before, concentrating on kisses and on nibbling along the sensitive underside of Bran's jaw.

"What is it?" Bran asked, when Will drew back to study his face, searching Bran's eyes with an intensity that raised a flush in Bran's chest. Will shook his head.

"I missed you, that's all. I don't like being away from you." Will had been away before, but hadn't come home with this desperate need to imprint himself on Bran, to wring this out for as long as he could.

Bran frowned at him. "I --," but Will grinned and silenced him with a deep, hard thrust that forced Bran's eyes closed and the breath out of his lungs in a gasp. Once he'd gone deep, Will stayed there, just rubbing himself against sweet places that made Bran's spine feel like it was simmering in sparks. 

When it got to be too much and he could see Bran was just at the edge of orgasm, Will stopped moving completely, still seated deep. He pushed the hair back from Bran's face and fisted his hands there. Bran opened his eyes and Will brushed a close-mouthed kiss against his lips. 

"It's an anniversary, of sorts," Will said, twitching his hips so Bran squirmed beneath him. Bran tried to remember what anniversary fell today, but couldn't think through the realization that, when they stayed very still like this, he could feel Will's heartbeat inside him. Will must have been close too, to be throbbing like that, and Bran wondered why he'd stopped.

"Do you remember," Will asked, "when we went out to look at the sea that summer when we were kids, that one day with the Drews when everything was sort of perfect?"

Bran shook his head.

"You came with me that day to the hills." Will kissed him softly and searchingly. 

" _Christ_ , Will, move. I need --. Just, _please_." Bran clutched at him and Will thrust again, but Bran could see the shadow of something dark and ancient across his face. Bran pushed his hips up, and Will nipped at his mouth, harder and no longer playful. 

"I didn't expect you to remember," Will whispered and bent so that their foreheads touched. It put his stomach against Bran's cock, and Bran groaned and shook his head, arching up gratefully to meet the pressure.

"Sorry I don't."

"It's okay." Will rocked his hips again, nudging his body into Bran's until they were both panting and wild-eyed. "I loved you that day," he whispered, and Bran pulled him down for a kiss that ended mostly with breathing into each other's mouths as they shuddered against overwhelming pleasure.

When it was over, Will settled with his head tucked into Bran's shoulder. Bran skated his fingers in abstract designs over Will's back, and felt Will shiver from the touch. "I wish I remembered," Bran said. "I didn't know you loved me then, but still."

"It's okay," Will murmured into Bran's skin, already half-asleep. "You're here now. I just miss the old days sometimes."

Bran frowned at `old days', but didn't question it. "We couldn't do this then."

"That's true." Will smiled up at Bran, then burrowed his face back against Bran's chest. "Wouldn't want to give this up."

"Yeah," Bran said, running his fingers into Will's hair to rub soothingly across his scalp. When Bran was sure that Will was asleep, he pressed a kiss against Will's forehead and drifted off himself, to dream of sun-drenched hills and silver trees. 

 


End file.
